


First Impressions

by Bogolush2electricboogaloo



Category: Transformers - All Media Types
Genre: Gen, Griffin Rock Prompts: First impressions
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-09-06
Updated: 2019-09-20
Packaged: 2020-10-10 22:17:48
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 4,605
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20535500
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Bogolush2electricboogaloo/pseuds/Bogolush2electricboogaloo
Summary: For the Griffin Rock Submissions contest!





	1. Chapter 1

Engine one failed. 

In space, it was easy to bump into foriegn objects RADAR, SONAR and the ike didn’t pick up. Most were cosmetic fixes engineering could handle. But propulsion was part of PALS jurisdiction and Jani’s was PALS SPOC for executing and communicating decisions. The bridge didn’t respond to PALS or her attempts to communicate so Jani rose from the vitals of the  _ Intrepid _ to investigate the rough landing.

Normally, the halls thronged with people getting food or tending to their niche of the ship but now they flared red with emergency lighting. 

Jani slid a fingernail over a rough cuticle on her thumb. She wanted to pick at the edge and rip it but if this was just a drill she’d have to go to group talks again. Top priority was the bridge, she told herself, there could be a communications malfunction.

There was a soft murmur ahead much like the hum of server coolant speaking in low whispers in the data hub. The bridge and command center overflowed with a whispering coven. Scott, Jani’s commander, leaned against the open doorway to the command room. He frowned at the ground.

“Scott, what’s going on?”

It broke his concentration, “Oh, yeah, Jani sorry I was going to get you. How’s the hub?”

“PALS needs a legacy decision, what’s going on?”

“Oh, we triggered a fairly advanced security system. Looks like our first engagement with an extraterrestrial intelligence and it’s going badly. We can only speak with their security system and it isn’t going well.”

“Security system?”

“Robots,” Scott reached out a hand to stop her picking her cuticles, “They’re as big as buildings, some of them are even bigger than the ship.”

“Robots acting entirely without decisions making input?”

“We can’t tell that Jani,” Scott’s voice rose in pitch, “The Captain is out there trying to communicate with them. He could die -”

Jani’s wrist cuff blinked off from blue to a solid red and she suddenly felt heavy.

“Stop picking at your nails, we’re all anxious about the captain.”

But Jani didn’t listen or react when he pushed her hands down. She shifted her weight from foot to foot. Watching to see what happened to the captain was important but she could feel her heartbeat. PALS was an amazing friend but PALS was also an AI, Captain Kim cared about her. At least, he made her feel cared about. Out of all the commanders, he listened to what she had to say about the ship’s systems and took her job as the Single Point of Contact for propulsion and artificial life support as a top priority. He wasn’t just her friend. Jani used her left shoe to pry her right heel off and then went entirely barefoot. 

“Something doesn’t feel right.”

“What?”

But Scott spoke to no one. Jani sprinted away, running barefoot through the abandoned and narrow corridors of the  _ Intrepid _ . 

There were parts of this ship that Jani didn’t know, parts of what made the ship function that she couldn’t understand. But they trained evacuation procedure since Jani could walk. Jani was born to be good with computers, decision making intelligences, and to be the most powerful but powerless person onboard. She spoke with the Propulsion and Artificial Life Support Artificial Intelligence or PALSAI, PALS was Jani’s nickname for them. It was that information, those years of learning only one thing gave her something inexplicable when it came to machine learning. Jani had a feeling something was wrong.

She felt out of breath but didn’t hesitate in taking down all the pieces of her suit. For the emergency suits, it was a lot easier to get the shoes on barefoot than over standard issue. Once those slipped on it was time to suit up. Jani first unclasped her wrist cuff before snapping it on over the suit itself. Then she pressed the red light to open communications with PALS.

“Hello, Miss Jani.”

“Hey PALS.”

“I am receiving an external request for data.”

Jani didn’t stop suiting up, if Captain Kim’s life really was in danger she didn’t have time to waste.

“Deny all requests and rotate security functions. Allow free access to language packets.” 

“This is a large file and may take some time to fully transmit.”

“Can you pull data from the transfer while they take that data?”

“Yes, Miss Jani.”

“Execute legacy order, allow them to take language data and pull as much of their data from the transfer as possible. But not anything that will compromise us including engine data, ship logs, life support needs.”

“Are they hostile?”

Jani hopped as she pulled on the final jumpsuit exoskeletal frame and wrapped it over her shoulders. 

“Yes, PALS, they’re hostile,” Jani pulled a glove over her hands so she couldn’t pick at them, “But let’s be polite about it.”

“Politely hostile.”

Jani zipped up the last covering to protect her from the world outside, “Execute airlock procedures.”

“Transferring to suit communications and running airlock protocol. Miss Jani, if a higher--”

Jani breathed in the false air in her helmet, testing the latches, “Understood, execute the order.”

The ground shook. There was a blur of metal and movement but Jani didn’t care about the danger.

The captain’s shielding broke, some pieces of the heavy glass injuring him but the rest leaving debris in his suit and in the strange alien ground. 

“Jani, What─?”

“Don’t talk, we have to get back to the ship.”

She was in as much trouble but years in the data room taught her to prioritize things on the fly. Oxygen levels took precedent. Not only was the helmet glass damaged, the seal was cracked. 

“You can breathe.”

Captain Kim breathed shallowly, “What are you doing out here?”

Jani fumbled with one latch but was more sure on her second one. She abandoned her safe air to give it to the captain. He tried to push her away but she had the upper hand of not being punted by a robot three times her size. 

“Just to the airlock, captain.”

A sound akin to claws on metal roared out and Jani snapped up. Without the shielding everything seemed closer. It was a four legged robot bigger than she was and the terrible noise it made sounded similar to an animal roar. A quick glance made her wonder how she made it out from the airlock so quickly. A sharp breath of air smelled like iron as she filled her lungs to shout. 

“I sent the language package.”

She coughed afterwards but she took in another breath to shout loudly, “I know you can understand me so, please.”

Pleading was a risk she was willing to take. Captain Kim could be the delegate and be political but now, she needed to save his life. All of the robots stopped, if it was PALS, Jani would call it a decision stall.

“My name is Jani,” she swallowed. The effort of projecting her voice to the behemoths was already a strain in the foreign air. “I am a data scientist on the  _ Intrepid _ , the ship you see here.”

Kim grabbed the arm that pointed to the ship, over the crackle of the radio she heard him, “Jani.”

The weird four legged robot sat back on their haunches. 

“This is our ambassador, Captain Li Kim. You’ve injured him. Please,” Jani coughed again, “Allow me to return him to the airlock so our physicians can give him first aid and we can continue negotiations.”

“Jani, this isn’t how it’s done.”

“Oxygen is first priority,” Jani told him, but the rest of her explanation was interrupted by a red white and blue robot thundering forward. Perhaps on equal footing it wasn’t a hostile move but it made Jani throw herself over the prone captain. 

“Jani, the data scientist. We only just got your language transfer. We had no understanding of how violent we are.”

“I need to return our Captain for medical care.”

“Of course, as proof of our regret, we’ll help you.”

A bright royal blue bot stepped forward and two, smaller robots jettisoned from their chest. These were maybe eight foot tall at most. Jani felt more afraid.

“Jani.” Captain Kim took her hand and she finally looked at him, “Jani, why are you here?”

“Engine one has a critical failure, you weren’t on the bridge.”


	2. Mutual Trust

“Move.”

The smaller, bluish one bent down to pick him up.

“Wait, he might be-”

Kim coughed audibly behind his shield as he was dragged upwards into the robot’s arms. Jani wasn’t good with conflict, mainly because people in tight living spaces had very different conflict from strange robots. She asked them to wait and they didn’t listen which usually meant talking about how it made her feel. These two didn’t seem interested in conflict resolution. Hopefully, Captain Kim would take care of things after the doctor treated him. 

The bigger robots stepped away. Some lingered momentarily from curiosity but Jani noted they had some way to communicate she could not perceive or understand. The animal one bounded back and changed. The animal  _ folded _ away as it bounded upwards into the larger one’s storage compartment. Jani stopped walking to watch the strange transformation. Perhaps it was impolite as she caught the taller one staring back. Or perhaps just looking in her direction but she was pretty self-conscious now.

The robots couldn’t get on the ship, she couldn’t think of better options so she tried a technique she learned in the canteen.

“May I see your endeffector?” Jani turned to the small blue one quickly, “I’ve always been fascinated with the motor-mechanics of robots. PALS doesn’t have any. Anyway, is it hard on your CPU to make decisions at the same time as fully automated motion control? Could I have a look after you put my captain down? What about poundage, do your limbs have a limit to how much they can carry?”

Jani waited for a response. She would never ask PALS this many questions but she wanted that stall, surprisingly enough she got an answer rather quickly.”

“What’s an endeffector?” He paused, “Oh, yah. I guess you can see it but we’re in a hurry.”

“It’ll only take a moment, we can only go one at a time in the airlock anyway. You’ll have to drop him in and we’ll have to wait for the door to reopen.”

It was an effective enough lie. When they unceremoniously dumped Kim onto the ground, a quick stroke on her wri-comm sealed the airlock. Jani tried to rush forward but her arm almost dislocated as she ran against the hold of the black and red robot, with a backward glance she knew he wouldn’t be letting go anytime soon. She couldn’t make it to the airlock but at least both robots were on this side of the airlock as well. Captain Kim was important for the people who lived on the  _ Intrepid _ . PALS could take care of the ship and ask Captain Kim for legacy decisions. Everything had a patch, she could work on the true fixes later. They would’ve killed her already if it was the plan. 

“Why isn’t the door opening?”

“I’m not going to be able to let you inside.”

The blue one leaned in too close to and she leaned away. She tucked in her chin to avoid the sudden intimacy and studied her feet.

“Our boss wants to talk to you.”

“Why?”

The red one pulling her away was their response. Not ready to be dragged, she stumbled along behind it. They moved amazingly fast for bipedal robots. Mobility this fast on the ship relied on wheels but they didn’t seem to care if she tumbled along.

“Help,” the word popped from her after a particularly close stutter to the ground.

Rather than discuss it, the blue one captured her from behind and lifted her over his shoulder. 

The red one fell back and jauntily strode behind them. Now they were seeing eye to eye he gave her a wide grin. It made the corners of Jani’s mouth move in response.

Politely hostile.

She couldn’t track where they were going. The only difference between the world around them and the increasing number of lumbering robots was color. She was so busy looking around that she almost fell off when the blue one suddenly stopped. 

“This is our uh…”

“Lord,” the blue one supplied.

“Yeah, lord Megatron.”

The ground shook as the gargantuan grey figure stepped forward. Unlike his peers, he bent down on one knee to get eye level to her.

“Good evening, Jani.”

“Good evening,” she coughed, “sir.”

He smiled and it reached his red optics as he extended his smallest finger, “A pleasure to meet you.”

Jani shook the rather large pylon of a digit with both hands, he did most of the shaking but she appreciated the gesture.

“How is your ship?”

Jani finally took a deep breath, she needed to report to someone, it didn’t matter much to who in her oxygen-deficient state. “Engines one and two sustained damage. Engine two has always been wonky so it is an overdue fix but engine one is a critical failure. I’m not sure we have enough time or resources to fix it and without those two engines, we’ll be dead in the black.”

“Dead in the black?”

“We’ll be flying in circles in space.”

Heat bloomed behind her eyes and cheeks and she snapped her mouth shut. She wouldn’t cry and she certainly wouldn’t talk long enough for the telltale crack of her voice. She wanted to pick at her fingers but they were currently covered in a suit. 

“This is a grave assessment, Jani.”

Megatron’s steady voice sounded human and expressive. 

“I am Megatron, I am the general of the Decepticon army, a faction of autonomous robotic organisms of the planet Cybertron, where we are currently.

We are currently in a world-wide division; a civil war between class and function. This is an exhausting war spanning millions of years and we limit our fighting to Cybertron inhabitants. Decepticon intel misread your ship’s energy trace as an enemy ship. Even now, many are suspicious you are an advanced enemy plot to drain resources and attack us from within. My second in command, Starscream - ”

Megatron gestured to the red white and blue robot who spoke to her earlier. He looked irritated with the sudden call to attention. Megatron continued to speak.

“- took a unit to scout out any danger and engaged against my recommendation. I will do everything within my power to make sure you exit Cybertron space safely. However, I must ask, why is your ship here, so far away from other organic life?”

“The  _ Intrepid _ is a missionary vessel from Earth to search for life, hospitable planets and study the edge of the galaxy to expand human knowledge.” Jani knew that answer as did everyone on the ship. 

Megatron nodded thoughtfully, “ I don’t expect you or your...family’s forgiveness but I hope we can help make things right. I’m not certain what materials or if we can help you replace your engine. I cannot spare the labor or resources right now, unless…”

Again a thoughtful pause, as if Megatron was thinking of what to say next, “Jani, would you mind stepping into my palm?”

He was gentle with her, how he could hazard that elevating her at a slow pace made it easier? His hand felt warm to the touch and alive. He raised her to survey the panel in front of him.

“Our enemies have a storage facility for materials for propulsion. With how small you are you could easily slip through undetected and take those resources. In exchange, perhaps you could do something for us?”

“I can’t. All negotiations and delegations need to go through our ambassador.”

Red eyes flared bright as he flashed a glance at the two robots lingering near, “And where is this ambassador?”

“He was injured by your people.”

Jani winced. It wasn’t the right syntax as Kim would say. But Megatron smoothed over her blunder.

“It seems there is much to make up for. There is nothing to be done until he recovers. I won’t pressure you to act.”

“Thank you,” Jani rolled her shoulders and tried to release the tension there.

“If allowed, I can spare two men,” He gestured to the two who brought her in, “My only ask is that you do not take long to decide.”

A storm passed over the visage of the large robot.

“I worry your very presence here puts you at risk. We’ll do our best to mask your energy but every moment on Cybertron drags you further to the event horizon of our civil war. I can’t imagine what our enemies would do to a group of explorers. Perhaps if you told me more about the nature of this energy onboard your ship?”

“I’m only a data scientist Mister Megatron.”

“You may address me as Megatron,” the robot tapped the console he worked with, “I must admit Jani, I admire you. In an alien world, you rushed to defend your leader and do what is right. I wish I had someone of your caliber and loyalty with me.”

“Thank you.” Jani fiddled with her gloves.

“Please, remain in contact and let your team know the severity of the situation. Wait too long and we may not be able to help,” Megatron waved over the tiny robots again, “Frenzy and Rumble will take you back, I’m sure you would like to return to see how your captain is doing.”

“Thank you, l- Megatron.”

He smiled again and set her gently to the ground, “Let my team escort you back. We are friends Jani, if you need anything, please don’t hesitate to ask.”

Jani wasn’t too sure she could trust the rest of his robots, the ones her size even felt more shifty, but she began to trust Megatron.


	3. Chapter 3

Decisions were made. Not by Jani but by the recovering Captain Kim. First orders were to rest. Her exposure to the outdoors wasn’t fatal or infectious but she sat in quarantine for two days while Dr Kapoor ran medical tests. The only damage was slight hemorrhaging in her lungs from particulates.

The first condition of going out and speaking with the robots was that she wear a helmet. Jani argued against it. There were limited emergency suits and Jani didn’t want another one damaged. But Captain Kim ordered it, so she wore a helmet. Also, Dr Kapoor informed him if she was exposed to the atmosphere too long she wouldn’t be able to oxygenate properly and would pass out. Jani argued until Captain Kim ordered her in group therapy for four years. 

The temporary order was that she would become part of the Decepticon committee. A group of people sent out to communicate with their new ‘hosts’ as everyone called them. Some of the higher ups didn’t like ‘hosts’. They also didn’t like the emergency pods being called ‘coffins’ but there were other things to worry about. No one wanted to be involved in a war but the grim truth was they weren’t going anywhere without three functioning engines on one side of the ship and two were down on the same side. What upset the Decepticon Committee most was that Megatron refused to allow anyone but Jani to directly communicate to anyone but Starscream. Mostly because Starscream was difficult. 

Megatron, for some strange reason, would ask for Jani to have conversations, mostly about humans and the ship. Jani did her best to ask the important questions that PALS was having difficulty processing. In return, she would bring a list of questions from the committee for him to answer. Which he usually didn’t in any way that mattered. 

“Why do you call yourselves the Decepticons? Isn’t that similar to calling yourselves liars?”

“Jani, you amaze me in every moment I spend with you,” he smiled and for some reason it made her feel a little bit special. 

“A long time ago, before the war began, we were called many things; thugs, criminals, but the one that stuck was ‘decepticon’ deceptive conmen so to speak. The connotations don’t really translate well. It was a curse that follow us, ‘don’t believe the lies of the Decepticons’. We did our best to own the word and transform it into something new.”

“Oh, like the...like the n word.”

“There are a lot of words that start with n in your vernacular.”

Jani changed the subject quickly, “How are you liking the pop culture data I’ve transferred?”

“Yes, the books. We call them datafiles which seems so inelegant in your language.” Megatron rapped his fingers on his chair thoughtfully, “but there are few robots in these stories especially like yours. There is no stories about this.”

Whenever Megatron spoke of the AI it made Jani chew her lip before speaking. “You really want to know.”

“You must understand, this is the only thing our cultures share.”

Jani sighed and leaned forward to make squiggles on the metal in front of her, “There are six levels of AI onboard.”

“AI, this is artificial intelligence?”

“Yeah,” Jani paused, it was so unclear what Megatron was so it made her nervous. 

He laughed, “Among my team you should be diplomatic, but not between us Jani. We’re friends.”

Jani exhaled, “Yeah okay, there are six AI onboard. Pegi, Palsai, Agie, Control, Archie and Dexter.”

“You’ve given them names but no cultural place?”

“Not everyone knows them,” Jani covered her wri-comm, “the AI have one point of contact to avoid non-procedural decision making from an unauthorized user.”

Megatron gave a soft ‘hmm’ which made Jani recall what someone asked her.

“Megatron,” Jani didn’t want to meet the searchlights of his stare so she just looked away, “Are we like you? Like, when you look at us and talk to us do you think we’re like you?”

“No.”

She flinched at the response and Megatron smiled over his blunder, “You are a younger species. I hope you never go to war as we have. Kindly explorers who do nothing in terms of conquering. We can only aspire to be as you humans.”

They each had something to think about so they sat in silence for a long time. Jani was going over all the names she’d learnt so far. Soundwave was really the only one she could remember because he was Frenzy and Rumble’s dad.

“Can I ask another question?”

Megatron smiled, “If I may ask one first.”

“Yeah.”

“Which AI do you control?”

Jani bit her lip, “I am PALS point of contact. He controls life support and propulsion systems.”

“So he would control the energy source on board.”

“Mmm, yeah no. It’s more like prioritizing where that energy goes based on past decisions. He’s really very advanced.” Jani tried to scratch her head but hit the shielding instead. “He also is the first access for energy. Moving and breathing are the two most important things on the ship so in case of an emergency, he controls protocols to access those things.”

“What ‘things’ would those be?”

Jani wanted to trust him, but PALS told her that they were continuing to attempt to pull data, despite Jani telling Megatron that she would give whatever they asked for as long as it was cleared by the crew. Why this was something she kept from everyone else, she didn’t know. But for now she wanted him to be honest with her. 

“I understand if you can’t answer these questions, Jani. What did you want to ask?”

“Well, I know we’re going on a mission soon, but they still won’t tell me. Which one is Frenzy and which is Rumble?”

The mission parameters finally cleared the Decepticon Committee and Megatron’s watchful eye about a week later. The robots seemed happy on the fast response which made everyone second guess if they should have taken longer. Jani was to go with Frenzy and Rumble to the Autobot supply base, which would have no enemies in it according to Decepticon intel. The two Decepticons would retrieve the material they needed for the  _ Intrepid  _ and in return, Jani would get a computer chip for them. Megatron stated it was a Decepticon chip stolen by their enemy. It would have the same symbol as they all shared on it.

Frenzy and Rumble disliked the fact they had to bring Jani along and Jani was a little worried about Frenzy and Rumble. They weren’t subtle. They pushed and pulled her along when she couldn’t keep up and generally seemed to share a joke Jani wasn’t privilege to.

“Human Jani, listen.”

They called her ‘human Jani’ because Soundwave called her that. 

“Yes?”

“Frenzy will go ahead and scout out the area.”

Jani frowned, “I thought you were Frenzy and Rumble was the purple one.”

From somewhere behind them he shouted, “I’m  _ blue _ !”

Jani grinned and Frenzy huffed, “Fine,  _ Rumble _ will go ahead and scout the area. We seperate here. Are you listening?”

“Don’t you have schematics or something I could follow?”

Frenzy scoffed, “You don’t need schematics where you’re going, just follow the red wire. You do know the difference right? Anyway, just go and get the chip you really can’t miss it.”

Luckily, Megatron talked her through it several times in their conversations. But the going was a little worse than she thought it would be. It was almost like she was stepping through the parts of a computer and she wasn’t about to step on something that didn’t look like ground. 

Her tank flared up a warning on her screen. Jani knew her tank levels were low but she didn’t realize they were that low. She should have taken a fresh tank rather than reuse the one she always had. But she swore she refilled it before she left. Jani took a moment to stop, rest and remove her shield. She could get yelled at for it later. It didn’t really matter. But carrying the shield would be too much so she left it sandwiched between...well nothing indistinguishable from anything else in this world. 

Now that she thought about it, Megatron never really detailed how she was going to return. Maybe she would just return to the place where Frenzy and Rumble were? It’s not like she would encounter any bad robots. He’d been very clear that this base hadn’t been used for years. 

Her coughing rattled her head enough to make her restart her thinking a little. They wouldn’t leave her behind if this chip thing was so important.

Once she found the paneling she realized she was coughing too much. Jani didn’t really have to worry about it giving her away but when she pulled away the cover she had to take a moment to catch her breath. 

Jani was expecting it to be a memory chip, not a solid state chip affixed permanently to the motherboard of the old machinery. 

“Why didn’t they come with me?” She muttered to herself as she began to work at the metal of the chip. They could always sauter on some aluminium or something to make it work, for now she would have to remove the chip. 

Her breathing became more and more labored. Her chest felt tight and even though the job was half done, she saw red dots scatter across her vision. How long had it been? Would Frenzy and Rumble come back to find her and would she be able to breath that long.

She was drowning in the foreign air and there was no one there to help her. 


End file.
